A Long-Term Evolution (LTE) system offers high peak data rates, low latency, improved system capacity, and low operating cost resulting from simple network architecture. An LTE system also provides seamless integration to older wireless networks, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), and Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). In LTE systems, an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) includes a plurality of evolved Node-Bs (eNBs) communicating with a plurality of mobile stations, referred as user equipment (UE). Over the years, enhancements to LTE systems have been made by the third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) so that an LTE Advanced (LTE-A) system can meet or exceed International Mobile Telecommunications Advanced (IMT-Advanced) fourth generation (4G) standard.
Over-the-top (OTT) content distribution is the delivery of audio, video, and other types of multimedia content over the Internet typically without any control of the content distribution by the network operators and/or by the content providers. The providers of OTT content are typically third party providers which utilize the network's infrastructure to provide content to their subscribers. As such, OTT content providers are not responsible for controlling redistribution of the content. Examples for OTT content providers are Hulu®, Netflix®, and the like.
MBMS is a broadcasting service offered via existing GSM and UMTS cellular networks. e-MBMS has been introduced in the LTE specification for broadcasting or multicasting TV, films, and other information such as overnight transmission of newspapers in a digital form. To facilitate MBMS in LTE systems, a multicast control channel (MCCH) is used for the transmission of MBMS control information in each MBMS Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) area, and a multicast traffic channel (MTCH) is used for the transmission of user traffic to UEs receiving MBMS data packets. MBMS has the major benefit that the network infrastructure already exists for mobile network operators and that deployment can be cost effective compared with building a new network for the service. The broadcast capability enables to reach unlimited number of users with constant network load. The broadcast capability also enables the possibility to broadcast information simultaneously to many cellular subscribers, such as emergency alerts.
One protocol for delivering broadcast services is File Delivery over Unidirectional Transport (FLUTE), which is defined in Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request for Comments (RFC) 3926 and RFC 6726. FLUTE may be used for the delivery of large and small files to many hosts, using delivery sessions of several seconds or more. For instance, FLUTE could be used for the delivery of large software updates to many hosts simultaneously. FLUTE could also be used for continuous, but segmented, data. FLUTE is also suitable for the basic transport of metadata, for example Session Description Protocol (SDP) files that enable user applications to access multimedia sessions. FLUTE can be used with both multicast and unicast delivery, but its primary application is for unidirectional multicast file delivery.
It is desirable to obtain metrics for analyzing the performance of FLUTE based video delivery for eMBMS in an LTE network.